Last March, five former Bell City Council members were convicted of fraud charges after jurors determined they paid themselves salaries for sitting on boards and commissions that did no work and existed only to pay the defendants. The council members had blamed Rizzo for that, saying he assured them they were doing nothing wrong.

Authorities accused Rizzo of diverting gas taxes and other funds into accounts used to pay the exorbitant salaries and of illegally raising property taxes to one of the highest levels in Los Angeles County even though Bell is one of its poorest cities.

He was also charged with falsifying municipal documents to hide officials' salaries when residents became suspicious.

The salaries came to light in 2010 after Rizzo released them to the Los Angeles Times. He had stalled the newspaper's reporters for weeks until they threatened to have their attorneys demand the documents under California public records law. The Times won a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the scandal.

Subsequent investigations raised allegations that the city's police officers were pressured to stop young Hispanic drivers and have their cars towed, and that voters were intimidated by police officers into casting absentee ballots for City Council candidates favored by Rizzo.

All of it was allegedly done, authorities said, to keep money flowing into the city treasury so Rizzo could pay himself and his political cronies. Those allegations remain under investigation.

As more allegations surfaced, angry residents complained that their modest city of just 2.5 square miles had been widely embarrassed. Friends and relatives from across the country and even other countries called them, they said, to ask what had happened.

A recall campaign ended with every council member being voted out of office. By then, the council had fired Rizzo and Spaccia.

"This is a bittersweet moment for the residents of Bell," said Saleh, now a member of the Bell City Council. "We have really fought hard and have been waiting for over three years for this moment, but the reality is that without a trial we don't get to learn more about how deep the corruption went and who all was involved."

It will take several more years before Bell recovers financially, he said.